Contributing to Unschooled

Guide Overview

This guide will walk you through the process of adding a post to the Unschooled Network using GitHub and Jekyll.

By following this guide, you will:

• Set up the necessary tools (Ruby, Jekyll, Git)
• Clone the website’s repository from GitHub
• Create a new post using Markdown
• Preview your post locally on your computer
• Submit your changes to GitHub using a Pull Request

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure you have the following:

1. A GitHub Account – If you don’t have one, create it at GitHub.com.
2. Git Installed – You should be comfortable using the command line (Terminal on Mac/Linux, PowerShell on Windows).
3. GitHub Authentication – Make sure you’re logged into your GitHub account and have set up authentication (using HTTPS or SSH). If unsure, follow GitHub’s setup guide.

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Now that you you are all set up, let’s get started

Installing dependencies

First thing’s first, make sure you have the necessary tools installed:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ruby-full build-essential zlib1g-dev git

If you are using Bash (the default for most systems), configure Ruby Gems.

echo '# Install Ruby Gems to ~/gems' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'export GEM_HOME="$HOME/gems"' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/gems/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Install Jekyll and Bundler

gem install jekyll bundler

Cloning The Repository and Creating a New Branch

Clone TheUnschooledNetwork.github.io Repository and install dependencies.

git clone https://github.com/TheUnschooledNetwork/theunschoolednetwork.github.io.git
cd theunschoolednetwork.github.io
bundle install 

Before adding a new post, create a new branch:

git checkout -b my-new-post

This will create a new branch and switch to that branch. This will ensure that your changes do not apply to the main branch until they have been reviewed by the project maintainers.

Adding A New Post

Navigate to the _posts/ directory and create a new Markdown file following the naming convention

cd _posts
nano YYYY-MM-DD-title-of-your-post.md

You can also open the file with Visual Studio Code by using the command

code YYYY-MM-DD-title-of-your-post.md

Use the following front matter template at the top of your file

---
title: "Your Post Title"
date: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS -500
categories: [your-category]
tags: [your-tags]
---

Write your content following markdown formatting conventions and Writing a New Post on Chirpy. Then, preview your changes locally.

Additionally, you may wish to make use of our working document with Resources for Content Creation

bundle exec jekyll serve

then open http://localhost:4000 in your browser to check your changes.

Commit and Push Changes to GitHub

Once satisfied with your edits, you will push (submit) these to our GitHub repository. But before doing that, check the status to see which files have been modified

git status

You should see your new post listed as an untracked or modified file. Stage it for commit.

git add _posts/YYYY-MM-DD-title-of-your-post.md

Now, commit your changes with a descriptive message before pushing them.

git commit -m "Draft: Initial version of 'My Post Title'"

Push your changes.

git push origin my-new-post

Submit/Update Your Pull Request (PR)

Now that your changes have been uploaded to GitHub you can submit a Pull Request (PR). This is the process by which you can propose changes to TheUnschooledNetwork main repository.

Open a browser and navigate to TheUnschooledNetwork.github.io repository

You should see a notification that your recently pushed branch is available to create a PR. Click the “Compare & pull request” button.

Fill out the PR details, adding a title and brief description. Lastly, make sure you are merging your branch into main.

Submit and await review by clicking “Create pull request.” Wait for feedback from us. If changes are requested, make the edits locally, commit them and push again using

git push origin my-new-post

After submitting the PR, check back on GitHub for any feedback or requested changes. You can respond to comments directly in the PR discussion and continue updating your branch until it is approved.

The PR should update automatically. Once approved, your post will be merged into the main repository and become part of The Unschooled Network.

For info about creating an account on our BTC Pay server to accept payments non-custodially, please contact theunschooled@proton.me